Coach Greg Groy's University of Florida women's and men's swimming and diving Gators raced to a sweep of Southeastern Conference rival Tennessee at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center Natatorium.

The No. 2 women's team cruised to an easy 132-101 win over the Lady Vols. The No. 6 men came from behind to defeat Tennessee by the slenderest of margins, 122-121.

The Lady Gators, defending SEC champs who'll try to make it two-straight titles when the conference meet begins in three weeks at Auburn, improved to 10-1 overall and 5-1 in the SEC. (Their only loss was to defending NCAA champ Auburn last Friday on the road.)

Florida's men snapped a two-meet losing streak and ran their record to 8-3, 4-2 in the SEC.

The Gator men, who trailed the entire afternoon, entered the final event (400 yard freestyle relay) down 114-112. The Gators, who trailed by 25 points on two occasions, used a 3:01.00 first-place finish by the team of Gabriel Mangabeira (Piratininga, Brazil), Kris Wiebeck (Tampa, Fla.), Nick Borreca (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Adam Sioui (Ontario, Canada) to capture the meet. Overall, the Gators won the final seven swimming events.

(Expect to see sprint star Carlos Jayme, who has prs of 19.76-43.05, on the conference and NCAA teams.)

The Gators were led by freshman Ryan Lochte, a Daytona Beach native (where they know something about speed and winning!), who raced to three wins for the second-straight meet.

Lochte has now won eight events in his last three dual meets and was 200 IM champ at the Dallas Morning News Invitational several weeks ago (pr and team-leading 1:47.81). He got his victory parade going in the IM with a 1:47.96, good enough to meet the NCAA provisional qualifying mark.

He didn't have time to rest, however, as he turned around and won the next race for Florida with his 1:49.00 in the 200 yard butterfly. (He also won against Alabama's defending NCAA champ, Ioan Gherghel, a week ago.)

Lochte's final victory in the 500 freestyle (4:25.85) brought UF within two points of the Vols at 95-93, entering the three-meter diving competition.

"Ryan had an outstanding day," Troy said. "He has really been swimming well lately. He was a big boost for us today."

Tennessee pushed the lead back to nine at 108-99 following the diving, but seniors Ian Chadsey and Philip Norris finished one-two in the 200 breaststroke with (2:00.47/2:01.84) to slice Tennessee's lead to two entering the 400 free relay. Norris' time was a season-best and his pr's 1:58.10 from last year.

Other Gator winners included defending NCAA 200 free champ Adam Sioui, who won his favorite race in an NCAA provisional qualifying 1:38.67; junior sprinter Jayme, was fastest in the 100 freestyle over childhood friend and fellow Brazilian national-team member UT's Renato Guerald (44.30). The latter was fastest i nthe 50 free (20.08 to Jayme's 20.45).

Gator junior Chris Kellam, a Tenessee native who says he prefers Gainesville to Knoxville and who's defending SEC 100-200 back champ (something of a rarity of late), was the other Florida winner. He placed first in the 200 backstroke (seasonal pr 1:45.30 — NCAA "B"). His career-best is 1:42.48 that won SECs last season and he'll be after the Gator record of 1:41.76 by Matt Cole (from the conference championships three seasons ago) come this year's title-decider.

Look for the waters of Auburn's James E. Martin Natatorium to "roil to a boil" in three weeks when Jayme and Gueraldi — national 50 free leader with his pr 19.57 from the Tar Heel Invite at Chapel Hill last November — vie for SEC sprint supremacy. (Of course, Auburn's Ryan Wochomorku and George Bousquet may have a few thoughts on the matter too but…)

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On the women's side, the Gators won 9 of 10 events and finished with top scores in the last three events they exhibitioned. Florida also placed one-two in 8 of 11 swimming events.

Florida's relay teams highlighted the meet as they raced to four NCAA provisional qualifiers. The Gators began by finishing with the top three times in the 400 medley relay. The winning 400-yard medley relay team consisting of freshman Jamie Reid, freshman Vipa Bernhardt, senior Renate duPlessis and junior Chantal Gibney clocked 3:43.11.

The Gators also swam the top three times in the 400 yard freestyle relay, swimming two more provisional times. The relay team of freshman Mary Uhle (like Bernhardt, a German junior-national team member) junior Jaime Ellis, senior Cara Teague and sophomore Meredith Green touched in 3:25.48.

Freshman Jamie Tannhauser, who's been somewhat obscured by her more prominent teammate, Sarah McLarty (who's national 1000 free leader with her 9:36.79 and defending SEC 200 fly champ) splashed home No. 1 in 9:58.77. It was the rookie's first win of the season.

McLarty only swam one event but she recorded a pr with her winning 1:59.67 for the 200 back.

Uhle swam her fifth provisional time in the 200-yard freestyle with a winning 1:49.75. Senior Anna Chapman also swam a provisional cut (1:50.49) in the 200.

Sophomore Rebecca Harper, bronze medalist at last season's NCAAs in the 200 fly (pr 1:55.66, second on the Gator all-time list) won with a "B' 1:59.90. Junior McLarty's 200 backstroke win now gives the Deland, Fl; native eight automatic qualifying times and nine provisional times.

(Stanford's Shelley Ripple, NCAA 200 fly champ last season with a Cardinal record 1:53.23, has graduated, thus leaving the door open for another champion. However, Cal's Natalie Coughlin set the American/NCAA record — 1:51.91 — a couple of months ago at Auburn. If she swims it at NCAAs next month it's lights out for the rest of the field. However, she's swum — and won — the 200 back on the final day of the collegiate-championship meet the last two years and as the man says, "I don't know ya' know, who knows?")

Junior diver Nicole Bolt continued her success on the diving board as she won the one-meter springboard competition and placed second on three-meter with scores of 285.38 and 309.75, respectively.

Both Florida swimming and diving teams will be back in action next Saturday, Feb. 8, when they host Florida Atlantic at the O'Connell Center for the last home meet of the season. All the seniors from both teams will be honored before the meet.

Two weeks later it's the SECs at Auburn and the Tigers are eager for some Gatorbait — both women and men. An d having defeated Florida in a dual-meet last week, Auburn is undoubtedly feeling quite confident (and rightly so) about its chances of winning both SEC titles.

The Gator women, although young in terms of championship experience, are a talented bunch. They have the front-liners to match Auburn with perhaps the exception of Tiger superstar Maggie Bowen, defending NCAA 200-400 IM champ.

The Gator men, with Lochte coming into his own, have talent and depth too, but perhaps not quite as much as the women and likely not enough to dethrone sextuple defending-champ Auburn.